RMQ Fall2004 real issue - Association of Railway Museums

Number 12
Spring 2013
In this issue Frank Kyper gives an
update on tourist railroads and
museums in Hawaii. Locomotive #302
(Whitcomb 1944) pulls a Hawaiian
Railway train on Oahu. See page 18.
Mike Lloyd photo, courtesy Hawaiian
Railway Society.
Address Service
Requested
ATRRM
P.O. Box 1189
Covington, GA 30015
PRSRT. STD.
U.S.POSTAGE
PAID
TWIN CITIES, MN
PERMIT NO. 1096
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ASSOCIATION OF TOURIST RAILROADS
AND RAILWAY MUSEUMS
The purpose of the Association of Tourist Railroads and
Railway Museums is to lead in the advancement of railway
heritage through education, advocacy and the promotion of
best practices.
For more details, or to report address changes, please contact us at:
Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums
P. O. Box 1189, Covington, GA 30015
www.railwaymuseums.org, www.traininc.org
(770) 278-0088
[email protected]
Officers
President: G. Mark Ray, Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
Vice-Presidents:
Scott Becker, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
Linn Moedinger, Strasburg Rail Road
Secretary: Ellen Fishburn, Orange Empire Railway Museum
Treasurer: Alan Barnett, Indiana Railway Museum
Directors
Richard Anderson, Northwest Railway Museum
Scott Becker, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
Chris Bertel, Thunder Mountain Line
Rick Burchett, Chehalis-Centralia Railroad
John E. Bush, Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
Steven M. Butler, San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad
Jeffrey D. Jackson, Train Entertainment, Inc.
Bob LaPrelle, Museum of the American Railroad
Linn Moedinger, Strasburg Rail Road
Peter Murphy, Exporail
G. Mark Ray, Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
Ken Rucker, National Capital Trolley Museum
Jim Schantz, Seashore Trolley Museum
Fenner Stevenson, Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad
Jim Vaitkunas, Minnesota Streetcar Museum
Meg Warder, Black Hills Central Railroad
Erv White, Grand Canyon Railway.
Kyle Wyatt, California State Railroad Museum
Committees
Renewal Parts: Rod Fishburn, Chair,
[email protected]
Staff
Suzanne Grace, Executive Director
P. O. Box 1189
Covington, GA 30015
[email protected]
Aaron Isaacs, Editor
3816 Vincent Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55410
[email protected]
612-929-7066
The Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums is a
Professional Affiliate Member of the American Association of
Museums.
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
By G. Mark Ray
Savannah, GA, was the location of the Spring 2013
ATRRM Spring Conference and what a great time we had.
Scott Smith, Terry Koller, and the rest of the Coastal
Heritage Society put together a great two-day package of
educational seminars and technical presentations. Although
Mother Nature handed us some chilly weather, we still
managed to enjoy a feast of a low country boil and the
sound of a 28 pounder being fired in our honor at Fort
Jackson. Many thanks to the Coastal Heritage Society and
we all look forward to returning there soon for a Fall
Conference.
We also had our first strategic planning session. Our
Chief Strategist, Don Evans, led us through the planning
session and introduced a draft mission statement for the
board to consider. We will vote on its adoption in October.
Key components of the strategic plan include development
of a marketing plan; pushing forward with advocacy
initiatives including the development of important
governmental relationships; strengthening our relationship
with the American Alliance of Museums, the American
Association of State and Local History, and the American
Short Line and Regional Railroad Association; and
broadcasting the impact our industry has on local
economies.
Summer is coming and most of us are about to get into
our busy seasons. Take some time early this summer to keep
an eye for important email blasts from Suzanne. The new
website will be launching soon and you will not want to
miss it. Fall Conference information appears on page 6 of
this issue. October will be here way too soon and the folks
at Orange Empire are putting together a great show for us.
But most of all, be well and keep everyone safe!
THE INCOMPLETE SAGA OF
SOUTHERN OFFICE CAR #16
By Tom Klobas,
Arizona Railway Museum
This is a story, but it has no end - at least not so far. The
subject is a standard gauge railroad business car. Oral
testimony says it was built in 1879 in Worcester, MA. By
whom and for whom are unknown. What we do know is that
in 1995, this car came into the possession of the Arizona
Railway Museum in Chandler, AZ. It was donated by the
family of its last owner upon his death.
It’s a wood frame car with wood siding and side sills but
steel center and end sills. It also has steel sheathing covering
its exterior which is painted in Southern Railway green. It
bears the number 16 and is adorned with the name “Desert
Valley.” It is 73 feet long (coupler to coupler) and 10 feet
wide. It has two three-axle trucks equipped with plain
journals, and a vestibule platform with stairs at one end. The
interior is divided into a lounge area, two bedrooms, a
lavatory, a dining room, a galley and crew quarters. It
possesses an ice storage area under the car together with a
fully intact DC electrical cabinet. It also shows the addition
of a roof-top radio antenna. The car is completely furnished
although none of the furniture appears to be of original
vintage.
My task? Try to find out as much as possible about the
history of this car, a car of obvious Southern lineage but
which finds itself seriously mislocated to the Arizona desert,
a thousand miles from any past affiliate of the Southern
To advertise in Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums, contact Aaron Isaacs at [email protected].
To download an advertising rate sheet, go to www.railwaymuseums.org/Static/documents/RateCard.pdf
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The first annual meeting of the newly merged Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums
will be held in Riverside, California from October 16 through 19, 2013.
The Conference will be hosted by Orange Empire Railway Museum. The time to make plans and reservations is now. Taking
advantage of California’s beautiful October weather and a conference hotel on the National Registry of Historic Places, the
Conference will focus on bringing the various interests of the members into a relevant and meaningful experience.
Wed. Oct. 16th:The Conference will begin with two optional trips. The Steam Experience Option will be limited to 50
participants and will take participants behind the scenes at Knott’s Berry Farm and their steam program. After getting the Knott’s
narrow gauge engines going for the day the group will go to Disneyland and their back shop area for a rare opportunity to
experience the Disney steam program.
The other optional tour will be the San Diego Experience. This trip is limited to 50 people and will provide a personalized tour of
the USS Midway aircraft carrier and a tour of the San Diego Trolley.
On Wednesday night we will gather at the Historic Mission Inn to network with our colleagues and industry sponsors. We will
have food and drinks as we become reacquainted in the beautiful surroundings of the Historic Mission Inn.
Thur. Oct. 17th will be dedicated to seminars and interacting with sponsors at the Mission Inn. The seminars include timely
subjects ranging from mechanical issues to how we display our historic collections. We will have participation from the FRA
and sponsored events.
Fri. Oct. 18th we will take the train to Los Angeles where we will divide into two groups for the morning. One group will go to
Metrolink and the other to MTA. We will have a trip over a portion of the Los Angeles rail network in the afternoon. We will
have dinner at the Harvey House in Los Angeles Union Station. We have a guest speaker lined up and this will be a unique
opportunity to have dinner at this historic location.
Sat. Oct. 19th will provide an opportunity for guest operation at Orange Empire Railway Museum and hands on seminars in
steam, diesel and electric operations. On Saturday night, there will be the Annual Banquet at the Music Room in the Mission Inn.
The Conference will include an outstanding companion program. Companions will spend Thursday in the Riverside area
enjoying a tour of the Mission Inn, tea and venturing into the highlights of Downtown Riverside. On Friday, companions will
take the train with the group to Los Angeles and then go to the world famous Huntington Museum. The tour will include lunch
and high tea. On Saturday, companions will go to the museum and enjoy the warm California weather from the park settings of
the museum. Companions will enjoy the banquet in the Music Room.
Conference registration is $295.00 if registration is completed before August 1, 2013. Beginning August 1st registration will be
$350.00. The Companion registration is $250.00. The Optional Tours are $100 per person.
The hotel has asked us to make reservations early. We have been fortunate enough to secure a very large block of rooms at the
Mission Inn, but we have also been told that if reservations are not timely made we will lose rooms. The Mission Inn can be
reached at (951) 384-0300.
Transportation to Riverside is easy. The Mission Inn is 20 minutes from the Ontario International Airport (Mission Inn may
provide transportation) and 4 blocks from the Riverside Amtrak station.
See you in California
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Railway. Why? This car deserves to be
nominated for placement on the
National Historic Register. But who
built it? For whom? And when and
where? This is the story of that search –
one of nationwide scope which has
consumed nearly three years and for
which I have experienced both joyous
discoveries and soul crushing
disappointments. But it is foremost the
story developing relationships with a
legion of thoughtful and helpful people
who have a love and understanding of
all things historical. With their
continued help, I may one day be able
to write the last chapter of this story.
The beginning:
rumor and disappointment
No
documentary
records
accompanied the donation of this car to
the Museum. The only information was
through word-of-mouth which
mentioned that the car came to the
Southern from the South Carolina and
Georgia Railroad, an early Southern
predecessor. Physical examination of
the car provided only one clue as to its
origin: the original wood siding
underlying the steel sheathing did not
appear to be the yellow pine authorities
describe as indicative of southern wood
car manufacturing techniques.
Southern business car #16 at the
Arizona Railway Museum.
The internet has proven to be a godsend for investigations of this type.
However, needing records that were
well over a century old, this resource
often demonstrated its limitations. We
began with the most obvious “lead”:
that the car was the product of Pullman
manufacture.
The car building records of the
Pullman Corporation (then called the
Pullman Palace Car Company) happen
to be some of the most accessible,
organized and comprehensive
collection of private business records
available to the public. With the able
assistance of archivists at the Newberry
Library in Chicago as well as the
Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL,
their respective collections were
searched for any record of a wood
business car built in Worcester, MA in
1879. Even with the understanding that
many early Pullman cars of that era
were built by others under contract for
Pullman, nothing surfaced. Even more
disappointing, it seems that Pullman
manufacture at Worcester did not begin
until the 1930s when it merged with
Standard Steel Car Company. Thus
began the first of a long line of
disappointments. Was the date wrong?
Was Pullman not involved? Was
Worcester the proper birthplace? It was
time to look elsewhere.
You can almost smell success
The next step was to search for
records which might detail its history
with the Southern Railway. For this
reason I made contact with George
Eichelberger of the Southern Railway
Historical Association in Atlanta, GA.
From “Ike”, I learned that the Southern
Railway records were not all in one
place and many of those that exist are
not very well catalogued. This was
especially true for passenger car
records, including “office” cars as the
Southern dubbed its business varnish.
However both he and Tim Andrews,
now of the Tennessee Valley Railroad
Museum in Chattanooga, TN, served as
knowledgeable sources of information
that helped me to understand many of
the Southern’s traditions regarding the
handling, numbering, modification and
assignment of its office cars.
Major help was provided by links
associated with the SRHA website,
particularly those attributed to Allen
Stanley and Tom Daspit. From those
links, I was able to obtain car diagrams,
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roster re-numberings, and executive
assignments for these cars. I was now
able, with only occasional breaks, to
follow the history of #16 from its origin
as South Carolina & Georgia #101 and
later as Southern #115, #111, #11 (in
1912), #9 (in 1920), #6 (in 1921), and
finally #16 (in 1946 until its retirement
in 1967). I was also able to learn how
the Southern did a major rebuild of the
car in 1924 installing steel center and
end sills along with steel sheathing over
the exterior wood siding. Six-wheel
trucks were installed in 1924, an iceactivated air conditioning system in
1939, and a radio antenna system in
1955. And finally confirmation that it
was built in 1879!! My joy knew no
bounds.
Builder? None was listed on any of
the documents. It was just lumped with
the other aged wooden office queens, in
report after report, under the category
“various builders”, a term I truly came
to hate. But I could not conceive of
submitting anything to the National
Register without including who built
the dang thing!
The great builder hunt
Well, how many car builders could
there have been in 1879? Dozens and
dozens it turns out. The internet proved
useful here. For example the resource
entitled “Railway Car Builders of North
America”
at
http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingsto
ck/list/bldr_list_O.htm#O proved most
helpful if not a bit depressing. Why not
try Worcester, MA?
The major car builder at Worcester in
1879, (and later absorbed into Standard
Steel Car and then into Pullman) was
Osgood Bradley. Using the services of
the Worcester City Library Information
Desk, I was able to determine that early
corporate records for Osgood Bradley
are maintained in the Baker Library at
Harvard Business School. Contact with
the Baker librarian determined that car
construction records for 1879 were
missing!! They had been sent in the
1950s to an unnamed museum in
Oklahoma. Rats, another dead end.
Back to searching for other records.
How about anything to do with the
South Carolina & Georgia Railroad?
The SHRA didn’t have any but the
Southern’s successor might. It was time
to contact the Norfolk Southern.
Internet searching revealed that those
records were reportedly kept at Virginia
Tech University at Blacksburg, VA.
Turns out they were but are no longer
there. The University’s archivist
reported that the records had been
reclaimed by NS and that they may not
be easy to access.
An old friend of the Museum, the
late Fred Springer of Santa Fe, NM,
thought he might be able to help. He
referred me to an NS executive with a
love of railroad history, Bill Schafer.
Mr. Schafer, who recently retired from
the NS, put me in contact with the NS
chief archivist, who after indicating he
would begin his search “next week”,
promptly resigned (I began to harbor
the thought that this search was truly
cursed.). However, after a period of
time had elapsed, the archivist position
was filled by Jennifer McDaid who was
able to resume the search once she
determined where the South Carolina
and Georgia archives were located.
Alas, nothing related to the business car
was found despite a thorough search of
documents in two archive locations.
Bummer.
Interviews with John White,
passenger car historian extraordinaire,
and southern railway historian
Professor H. Roger Grant of Clemson
University were unable to provide any
direct information to assist me. I was
getting a little bit desperate at this
point.
Interstate 101
A side note is in order at this point.
According to Poor’s Annuals for the
period, the South Carolina and Georgia
had two business cars on its roster prior
to its merger with the Southern in 1899.
The second one, reportedly built in
1870, went on to become the famous
Interstate 101 now doing duty as a
tourist information center in Big Stone
Gap, VA. That car has strikingly
similar characteristics to the Desert
Valley, but attempts to clarify its origin
have also led to inconclusive results.
South Carolina & Georgia Railroad
With the Norfolk Southern archives
having provided no help, it was time to
look at what other records might exist
for the SC&G. It is the subject of a
1975 book, “Centennial History of the
South Carolina Railroad”, by Samuel
M. Derrick. Examination of the book
reveals no mention of the business cars
but does detail that the railroad’s gauge
until 1886 was 5’4”, a fact which may
have impacted when and from whom
their business car #101 was obtained.
Inquiries to several historical groups
and libraries in South Carolina,
including one which was the repository
for Mr. Derrick’s papers, led nowhere.
So how did a car like you
end up in Arizona?
As I described earlier, the Southern
Railway’s records are a scattered lot.
The SHRA and the NS only hold a
portion of them. Another source is the
Southern Museum of Civil War and
Locomotive History in Kennesaw, GA.
Assistant Archivist Daniel Pete was
able to locate SR executive
correspondence detailing the retirement
of Office Car #16 in 1967 and its
subsequent sale (with several others) to
the Houston Sports Association for
$10,000 each. That group is believed to
have had the famous politician, and
sports and entertainment mogul Judge
Roy Hofheinz among its major
participants. Hofheinz, for whom the
terms “colorful” and “flamboyant”
were made to order, was described by
his biographer as a major collector of
various items. Apparently this included
railroad cars. Some rumors indicated
that he was attempting to develop a
railroad-oriented resort complex to be
adjacent to his Astrodome and
Astroworld properties in Houston.
Those plans never reached fruition and
apparently that failure resulted in the
dispersal of the cars to various
purchasers - possibly in the late 1970s.
One of these, Southern #16, was sold to
the Phoenix Cotton Pickery and
relocated to Arizona. In 1982, it was
purchased by Mr. Russell Joslin who
used it as a personal office and
christened it with the name “Desert
Valley”. Upon his death, his family
donated it to the Arizona Railway
Museum.
End of story?
I hope not. I still harbor the hope,
perhaps better described as a delusion,
that somewhere in some dusty and
yellowed document in the hands of an
elderly former railroad employee, or in
the mildewed and long-forgotten
volumes of a bankruptcy proceeding
(the SC&G went through more than
one), or in some uncatalogued batch of
undistinguished papers given to a
museum by family members of a
deceased rail fan is the answer, the holy
grail of this quest – just who built
Office Car 16?
Anyone who feels they might be able
to assist in this quest is encouraged to
contact the author via the Arizona
Railway
Museum
at
www.azrymuseum.org.
UP OR DOWN?
And what are you going
to do about it?
By James Porterfield
The overall tone of the call was
cordial. I'd placed it, in this case to a
well-known railway heritage tourism
industry leader, as part of my fundraising effort on behalf of the Center for
Railway Tourism. A career in sales
taught me to expect objections. But in
this case the sum of the objections he
raised took me aback. They went
something like this:
1."We're in a declining industry.
Attendance is off."
2."As a result, things are really tight
right now.”
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3."And we've just committed more
than $1 million to restore a steam
locomotive."
The sound of me initially sputtering
in reaction to these statements had three
sources:
First, how do you know the industry
is in decline? In the last issue of
TRRM, this column bemoaned the
railway heritage community's inability
to produce benchmark data on
attendance, revenue, employment, and
economic impact. In the face of such a
paucity of information, it strikes me
that no one can speak definitively on
the state of growth or decline in the
industry.
One can, however, make a statement
about the situation at his or her
operation. But that is mere anecdotal
evidence - see more on this below - that
has no bearing on the state of the
industry.
Here's what we do know: Heritage
tourism,
nation-wide
and
internationally, is a growth industry.
How do we know this? A recent U.S.
Travel Association study found that:
81% of all tourists, defined as those
who went on a trip that took them at
least 50 miles from home, engaged in at
least one heritage tourism activity.
21% of these travelers are frequent
heritage tourists, making more than
three such history/culture-related trips
per year.
Most heritage tourists undertook
their trip specifically because of
historical or cultural events or
attractions.
And from Jascha M. Zeitlin and
Steven W. Burr, in A Heritage Tourism
Overview, published by the Institute for
Outdoor Recreation and Tourism at
Utah State University in May 2011, the
summary observation that, "heritage
tourism is a component of most
American tourists’ trips."
There are an estimated 120 million
leisure travelers each year in the United
States. A rough crunch of these
numbers yields 140 million visitors to a
heritage tourism venue in 2012.
More specifically, a report titled
Summary Analysis of Heritage Tourism
Trends and Economic Impact
Nationally and in New Jersey,
published in 2010, summarized
research on this topic over the years as
follows: "Since national organizations,
such as the U. S. Travel Association
(formerly the Travel Industry
Association of America/TIA) and the
National Tour Association, began
tracking interest in and visitation to
historic attractions more than two
decades ago, heritage tourism has
steadily demonstrated incremental
growth as a segment category overall."
Another report, this one from Mintel
International Group Ltd. titled Cultural
and Heritage Tourism -- International,
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United
Nations
summarizes
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization data as showing cultural
and natural heritage tourism to be "the
most rapidly growing international
sector of the tourism industry." Further,
while acknowledging that international
data on the size of the market is hard to
come by, the Organization for
Co-operation
and
Economic
Development and the UN's World
Trade Organization reported in 2007
that cultural - synonymous with
"heritage" - tourism accounted for 40
percent of all international tourism, up
from 37 percent in 1995. That 8 percent
growth occurred over a period of high
international tension, social upheaval
and eventually, economic challenges.
Finally, from one of the most cited
recent studies of heritage tourism, The
Cultural and Heritage Traveler, 2009:
Report of Findings, prepared by
Mandala Research, LLC, and
commissioned by the U. S. Cultural &
Heritage Tourism Marketing Council,
this finding: "The majority of leisure
travelers indicate that they will take
either the same amount or a greater
number of leisure trips in the next 12
months compared to a typical year." So
not only has the industry grown over
the past 20 to 30 years, it is likely to
continue to grow.
Now consider this: The second
reason for my sputter, then, is that I was
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trying to determine how - or even if - I
should go on to ask the obvious
question: If the industry you are in,
heritage tourism, is growing, and your
operation, (insert name here), is
declining, shouldn't you be trying to
learn what you are doing wrong and
develop strategies to correct the
mistakes you are making?
I realize this is a plug for the Center
for Railway Tourism, which has as its
primary purpose to work to ensure the
future success of railway heritage
tourism, but whether you are talking
about your own operation when you say
things are in decline, or summarizing
anecdotal information you've picked up
from others, your observation should be
a call for action, not a reason for
inaction.
And about that steam locomotive
First, know I love steam locomotives
as much as anyone in our community.
It's the only motive power you'll find on
my HO-scale layout, and I pay a guy
plenty to install DCC and sophisticated
custom sound components in each of
them to make their operation as realistic
as possible. Early in the semester, I use
video footage of the real thing operating
a speed - volume on "high" - to engage
students in my railway heritage classes.
Besides, we could be talking about any
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capital project that is putting a strain on
your budget.
But here the sputter-inducing followup question has to be an echo. Can you
cite any reliable - not anecdotal evidence that assures you that by
restoring that locomotive you are going
to turn your declining fortunes around?
Would it be wiser and more helpful to
be one of many to contribute $25,000
over five years to a combined effort to
identify why you and others (if there are
others - remember yours is anecdotal
evidence) are experiencing decline,
target opportunities for growth, and set
to work insuring there will be people
who want to see that steam engine
under way when it's finished?
Does it make any sense to invest
millions in a project for which, in 10 or
20 years, there may be no interest? Is
the then-rusting equipment at your
railway heritage venue going to be sold
for scrap and the deteriorating buildings
on your property bulldozed for a new
supermarket? The fast-moving changes
to the nation's demographics, especially
age, gender and ethnicity, are not going
to wait for you to figure them out and
catch up.
To get you started
In response to the recent economic
downturn, the National Trust for
Historic Preservation has created a bestpractices website with 100 case studies
that offer lessons learned from those
and
marketing
"attractions
organizations standing up to the
challenge and finding ways to survive."
You can review the entire list, or search
for specific ideas based on type of
attraction or organization - i.e., heritage
area, historical society, museum/historic
site, etc. - and among eleven strategies,
from "Balancing Your Budget" to
"Take Advantage of Tech," you want to
consider. The range of ideas is
refreshing.
Go
to:
www.preservationnation.org/survivaltoolkit
To attract young members
September, 1993, Theodore
Kornweibel, Jr., wrote, in an article
titled "Pass It On" in TRAINS, about
steps “adults over 50” can take to
encourage “rail consciousness” among
young people. He describes those then
over 50 - now over 70 - as being the
only ones who can share a first-hand
appreciation of one of the most
important and romantic chapters in
American history. In closing, he
observes, "If we are even halfway
passionate about railroading, we will
want to ensure that future generations
share the same enthusiasm. But don’t
count on that happening automatically
through our educational or cultural
systems. It won’t, unless you and I use
our profession or avocation as an
opportunity to do more than gratify
ourselves. We have a legacy to
preserve." It's true today as well:
Passing it on is a moral as well as an
economic imperative.
CHIPPEWA VALLEY
RAILROAD
By Aaron Isaacs
One of the more unusual tourist
railways runs on a mothballed line out
of the small town of Durand, in the hills
of western Wisconsin. A dozen times
each year, the Chippewa Valley
Motorcar Association hosts nature tours
for local environmental organizations
on five miles of a former Milwaukee
Road branch that is the only access to a
large wildlife refuge.
In 1882-83 the Milwaukee Road
built a 45-mile branch up the Chippewa
River valley from their Mississippi
River mainline at Wabasha, Minnesota
to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Its most
unusual feature was a bridge across the
Mississippi with a pontoon swing span
that survived until 1952. Thereafter,
trains used trackage rights over the
Burlington’s Twin Cities line from
Winona, Minnesota to reach the branch.
Like so many low-density
Milwaukee branches, it led a quiet
existence, finally expiring in 1977. That
wasn’t the end, however. It was
purchased by Northern States Power
Company, which planned to build either
an online coal or nuclear power plant.
The plant never happened, and is
looking increasingly unlikely, but much
of the line remains intact. The northern
end is now a state trail.
Enter the Chippewa Valley Motorcar
Association in 1995 to take advantage
of this empty railroad just sitting there.
They leased 11 miles from NSP (now
Xcel Energy), cut brush, fixed some
washouts and began running. Gradually
they reopened five miles.
Those miles start next to a state
highway three miles south of Durand
and immediately swing away toward
the river, penetrating the heart of the
Tiffany State Wildlife Area. The
Chippewa valley is broad, with a large
flood plain and network of backwaters.
It floods seasonally and contains a wide
variety of ecosystems including forests,
marshes and restored prairies. The
railroad passes through on fill and
features five bridges over back
channels.
Because there is no road access into
the wildlife area, it didn’t take for local
naturalists to contact the Motorcar
Association to charter trains. They are
concentrated in May, June and
September. Mid-summer trips are
avoided because of heat and the
predations of mosquitoes, deer flies and
ticks. As our guide put it, “Come down
here in the summer and you’re a blood
donor.”
The
business
plan
is
straightforward—one of a half dozen
nature groups runs two four-hour trips
A 12-car speeeder train carrying 70 people prepares to depart the terminal, three
miles south of Durand, WI.
The Chippewa Valley’s 5-mile exMilwaukee Road line passes through
the middle of the roadless Tiffany
Bottoms wildlfe refuge. Future
extensions are planned.
13
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The Chippewa Valley
train crosses one of five
bridges over backwater
channels.
15
16
Opposite: The train makes multiple stops for nature walks and talks. Note that
each speeder is painted for a different railroad.
Above: Shortly before the line was abandoned in 1977, a boxcar derailed on this
bridge over Buffalo Slough and overturned. It has been there ever since, and is a
regular stop on the motor car trips. Note that the train is restroom-equipped.
on a weekend day, one morning and
one afternoon. The sponsor group
handles all the ticketing, with online
reservations via theirs and the Motorcar
Association’s websites. They typically
charge $15-25 per person, with the
Association getting a $5 cut. This
provides sufficient revenue to support
the railroad.
The train itself is motorcars maxed
out. Passengers ride on ten depowered
gang cars coupled and sandwiched in
“pull-pull” fashion between a pair of
large Fairmount speeders. Trailing the
consist is a low-slung cart carrying a
porta-potty. This motley assemblage
can accommodate about 70 passengers
and was full the day I rode.
The train makes periodic stops at
environmentally significant sites. Onboard naturalists give talks and lead
walks away from the train, then it’s on
to the next stop. There’s one significant
railroad attraction. Down an
embankment at the steel truss bridge
over Buffalo Slough is a 40-foot steel
boxcar. It derailed on the bridge in
1977 and was never salvaged. One can
see where it cut the ties and dented the
truss.
Track speed is about 15 mph, which
is loud, jarring and seems plenty fast.
Most of the rail is 65 or 70 pounds,
with much of it dating from the line’s
opening. The light track structure is a
bit wobbly and uneven, but sufficient
for motorcars. There are no plans to
acquire actual locomotives or coaches,
as that would increase track
17
maintenance to an unsustainable level.
The Association periodically
replaces ties, sprays weeds and repairs
the occasional washout. The south end
of track at the 5-mile mark is blocked
by a large washout. The Association has
a bridge kit awaiting installation and
hopes to extend service another three
miles once it is installed in a year or
two.
North of the boarding area the track
is intact for three miles along Highway
25 into Durand. The Association has
rights to run on it, but it’s tied up in a
court case where an adjacent property
owner is claiming adverse possession of
the right of way. The railroad right of
way was originally acquired through
full ownership, not an easement from
adjacent property owners, so it is
expected that the court will reject the
adverse possession claim.
RAILS HAWAI’I 2012:
The second time around
By Frank Kyper
My wife and I and our three thenpreteen children made a whirlwind,
three-week, four-island trip to Hawai’i
in 1989. Priority One was to visit the
existing railway operations in the 50th
state, already totally entrenched in the
preservation and restoration modes. We
savored—and, in most cases, rode—
four narrow gauge railway operations
on the islands of O’ahu, Kaua’i, and
Maui. The fruits of our trip lingered—
with articles I wrote appearing in
Hawaii Magazine and Railfan &
Railroad.
Fast-forward 23 years. Our younger
daughter and her husband now live on
O’ahu with their menagerie of five
dogs, two cats, a guinea pig, and two
horses. A changed lifestyle made it
possible for my wife and me to enjoy
over two leisurely, unhurried months in
late 2012 on the mid-Pacific tropical
archipelago. Much to our pleasant
surprise, railway activity on the islands
has increased exponentially since 1989.
While the rail focus of our trip in 1989
was of necessity limited to all that was
available at the time—the Hawaiian
Railway Society near Pearl Harbor; the
Grove Farm Homestead outside Lihu’e,
Kaua’i; and the Lahaina, Kaanapali &
Pacific RR and the Alexander &
Baldwin Sugar Museum, both on
Maui—in 2012 not only had two of
them expanded but there are now at
least double that number of active rail
sites statewide.
A dramatic indication of the growth
since 1989 of Hawai’i’s rail heritage is
the repatriation or expected return of six
former Hawaiian steam locomotives
from the mainland and the Philippines.
The accompanying table summarizes
18
what is where. This is a report on the
two islands—O’ahu and Kaua’i—we
visited in 2012; we plan to return to
visit Maui and the Big Island of
Hawai’i in another year or so.
Hawaiian Railway Society
It’s been a long haul for the 36-inch
gauge remnant of the Oahu Railway &
Land Co. that once ran for 71 mainline
miles out of Honolulu’s west side and
circled about half the Island until
abandonment in 1947. Today, about 11
miles remain, extending from Pearl
Harbor’s West Loch, past the HRS’s
small yard and shop at Ewa, due west
until it rounds a curve at the Ko Olina
resort, and north past several beaches to
reach Nanakuli. From 1950 to 1968, the
Navy used this track to operate
ammunition trains. The HRS, an
ATRRM member, was formed in 1971.
Much of the remaining OR&L narrow
gauge equipment has been acquired
from various locations on the island and
the U.S. mainland. The track has been
restored and equipment rehabilitated.
Today, HRS diesel trains leave Ewa at 1
and 3 p.m. every Sunday, and also for
special charters, giving public rides
over 6.5 miles to the end of in-service
track two miles short of Nanakuli.
The HRS has made tremendous
strides since I was last there in 1989,
including acquiring OR&L 4-6-0 No.
85 (Alco-Cooke 1910); restoring the
OR&L’s pristine ornate official car No.
64; adding seats, sides and roofs to five
former flatcars to make them into
tourist cars; and restoring the track, an
on-going process. It was a reunion for
me. Bob Paoa, the HRS historian 23
years ago, had showed me around the
museum and arranged a special train for
my first visit in 1989. Bob, 75 years
young, was on hand to greet me again
with Jeff Livingston, now the historian,
who outlined the HRS’s goals.
“I prefer to describe our operation as
a historical railroad rather than a tourist
railroad,” Jeff asserted. “We currently
haul about 18,000 passengers a year.
We have an annual increase in ridership
of about 20 to 22 percent, which I
attribute to being a fairly inexpensive
attraction for families during the
economic downturn.”
The HRS has about 300 members, of
which Jeff said 12 to 15 are regular
volunteers. In addition to a cosmetic
restoration of No. 85, current efforts are
directed to a from-the-trucks-up
rebuilding of OR&L passengers cars
Nos. 2 and 57, the almost finished
external restoration of OR&L 0-6-0 No.
12 (Alco-Manchester, 1912), the
possible building of a new country
depot at Ewa, and efforts to see if a
replica of a Model T railcar once
operated by the OR&L in the 1920s can
be built.
What about restoring operations on
dormant track still awaiting restoration
east of Ewa to West Loch and north
from near appropriately named Tracks
Beach to Nanakuli? “There are series of
bridges north of the end of our inservice track that need extensive work,
and we also need to build a runaround
track and deal with highway widening
in Nanakuli,” Jeff said. “The track east
of Ewa is in better shape. It would be a
place to use the Model T railcar.”
Hawaiian Railway trains run through
desert-like terrain being overtaken by
urban development, including the new
Private car #64, built in 1900, has been fully restored and is available for private
party charters. Mike Lloyd photo, courtesy Hawaiian Railway Society.
city of Kapolei—current site of the only
signaled grade crossing. The train,
pulled by a vintage 1944 Whitcomb
diesel, its siderods flailing, passes
through the shaded greenery of the Ko
Olena resort, where many residents
wave to the Sunday trains. It then turns
north, skirting Oahu’s scenic west shore
beaches to end its run opposite the
Hawaii Electric Plant. There, the train
reverses its direction to return to Ewa.
Hawaiian Railway Society, 91-1001
Renton Road, Ewa Beach, Oahu, HI
96706-3402; Mailing Address: P. O.
Box 60369, Ewa Station, Oahu, HI
96706. Telephone: (808) 681-5461.
www.hawaiianrailway.com.
Pineapple Express
Okay, it’s not a real railroad, but
some of us have occasional
involvement with amusement park
equipment. The Pineapple Express runs
at the Dole Plantation on Route 99 in
Wahiawa, about four miles beyond the
end of Highway H2 in northwest
O’ahu. The complex includes a large
store and grille, what is said to be the
largest maze in the world, a plantation
garden tour—and the two-mile 24-inch
gauge Pineapple Express. Two trains
run alternately, and have a narration
and play Hawaiian music as they amble
through the fields on the dogbone
layout past different types of plantings
and harvesting equipment. One train is
bright red, powered by a 0-4-4T and the
other a blazing yellow behind a 4-4-0.
You can smell the diesel exhaust from
them.
Dole
Plantation,
64-1550
Kamehameha Highway, Wahiawa, HI
96786,
(808)
621-8408,
www.doleplantation.com.
Grove Farm Homestead
A plane hop took us across the deep
channel separating the islands of O’ahu
and Kaua’i. Once we were out of the
terminal at Lihu’e, I could find no trace
of the deserted and overgrown 30-inch
gauge railroad yard that was on the
front lawn of the airport in 1989. The
narrow gauge had operated on the
Garden Island years ago, providing
both common carrier and plantation rail
service. My objective was the Grove
Farm Homestead Museum at Puhi and
the last 30-inch railway on Kaua’i.
Kauai’s Grove Farm Co. ran one of
the largest 30-inch gauge plantation rail
empires. After the last trains ran in
1957, four of the steam locomotives
were locked up in the enginehouse. The
Grove Farm Homestead was spun off
from the large Grove Farm Co. It was
the intention of the late Miss Mabel
Wilcox, matriarch of Grove Farm, to
have track relaid so plantation railway
rides could be part of the homestead
experience to preserve and interpret
Above: Dole’s Pineapple Express alternates using its two locomotives, usually
running each for about a month at a time. The bright yellow 4-4-0 was built at
Stratford-on-Avon, England.
Below: This brilliant red two-foot gauge 0-4-4T at Dole Plantation is clearly
designed after a 19th century Mason Bogie—until reality abruptly sets in as diesel
exhaust billows out from under the cab.
It’s a wood burner. What has to be one of the most historic locomotives in
Hawai’i is the Paulo (Hohenzollern,Düsseldorf, Germany, 1887). The tiny 30-inch
gauge 2-4-2T, often pulls—and pushes--the Grove Farm trains on the second
Thursday of every month on the island of Kaua’i.
19
19th century missionary and plantation
life on Kaua’i. In 1999, the homestead
acquired a mile of right-of-way and
started relaying track on the Lihue
Plantation Co. roadbed running to the
Lihue Sugar Mill, now being
demolished. Since 2006, steam trains
have run over 1,800 feet of track on the
second Thursday of every month and at
additional times for school and other
charters.
It was again reunion time. Scott
Johnson was instrumental in the
restoration of three of the four Grove
Farm locomotives in the 1970s, and
then went on to restore the three-foot
gauge 0-4-2T Claus Spreckles (Baldwin
1882), Hawaii’s oldest steamer, on
Maui in the mid 1980s. Scott was back
on Kaua’i by the time I visited the
Island in 1989. He is now in charge of
the railway at Grove Farm and its
monthly operations. It’s a small
operation (about 50 riders a month), but
a unique and memorable pioneering
Hawai’i experience. Often heading up
the train of two or three four-wheel
sugar cane cars outfitted with benches is
Paulo, the 1887 2-4-2T built by
Hohenzollern of Düsseldorf, Germany.
Paulo may be spelled by Wahiawa
(Baldwin 1921), a 0-6-2T, while the
other two Baldwins remain back in the
original Grove Farm enginehouse at the
homestead.
Paulo was recently retubed. After
dealing with a sinkhole that resulted in
the track being cut back 200 feet, the
plan is to move ahead with the laying of
additional track. The original rail on
Kaua’i was too far gone for reuse, but
Scott reported having rail for 4,000 feet
of track “in the warehouse.”
Grove Farm Homestead, P. O. Box
1631, Lihue, Kauai, HI 96766, (808)
245-3202, http://grovefarm.org.
Above: Kauai Plantation Railway’s 1948 GE 10-ton locomotive No. 20 has just
pulled its train up to the station, a former guesthouse at Kilohana Plantation at
Lihu’e, Kaua’i.
Below: Coach No. 3, Waimea, is typical of the four open-air passenger cars the
Kauai Plantation Railway built up on 36-inch gauge ex-Hawaiian flatcars
purchased from Alaska.
20
Kauai Plantation Railway
The Kilohana Plantation on Lihue’s
west side is coming on strong as
Kauai’s premier destination. It started in
1935 with the building of the 16,000
square foot Tudor style estate house and
its surrounding buildings on 105 acres
of land owned by Gaylord Wilcox,
then-manager of the Grove Farm Co.,
and his wife Ethel. Starting in the
1980s, it re-evolved in the main and
adjoining buildings into an upscale
dining experience with Gaylord’s
Restaurant, galleries and shops, the
Koloa Rum Co., the memorable
evening Luau Kalamaku, a nature
trail—and the three-foot gauge Kauai
Plantation Railway.
“Fred Atkins restored and revived
the plantation utilizing many of the
existing buildings,” Pepe Trask, railway
general manager and a former trial
lawyer, explained. “The station we are
in now was an old guest cottage.”
Kilohana was placed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 1974 and
designated a Hawaii Historic Landmark
in 1993.
The Kauai Plantation Railway is a
modern-day recreation of the sugar cane
railways that once operated on the
Hawaiian Islands, built from scratch in
2006 as an additional attraction to draw
visitors to Kilohana. It took about a year
to lay 2.5 miles of track in a figureeight through much of the plantation.
Clearing an almost impenetrable tangle
of feral sugar cane from an abandoned
field had to be done first. Following
grading, 40 containers of railroad
materials arrived from the mainland—
and 60-pound rail was spiked to ties on
two interlocking loops of track.
Today, much of this area has been
replanted with various types of fruit
trees, pineapple, sugar cane, and taro—
which are neatly labeled with signs. The
conductor gives a running narration as
the hourly (daily 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., plus
a 5 p.m. departure on luau days) trains
make a 40-minute circuit of the railway.
A highlight of the ride is when the train
stops at the farthest pasture so the
passengers can leave the train and throw
bread to a herd of pigs and goats. Pepe
reported the trains haul 5,000
passengers a month.
Railway equipment came from a
variety of sources. After a small 1939
Whitcomb
diesel-mechanical
locomotive proved to be too geriatric
for sustained operations, two fourwheel General Electric 25-ton diesel
locos built in 1948 and 1942 were
acquired. Four passenger cars inspired
by early rail equipment on Hawaii have
open sides for maximum viewing,
mahogany floors, and scribed siding.
The cars have a strong Hawaii origin.
They were originally flatcars on the
Oahu Railway & Land Co., and were
PRESENT-DAY RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES IN HAWAI’I
No.
Name
O’ahu:
Type
Date
Cons.No.
Previous Owner
Hawaiian Railway Society, Ewa:
(36” gauge)
1
Steam 0-4-2T+T
Baldwin
6
Kauila
Steam 0-4-2T
Baldwin
6
Steam 0-6-2T
W.A.Co.
12
Steam 0-6-0
Alco-Manchester
85
Steam 4-6-0
Alco-Cooke
174
Diesel B-B 65-ton
Whitcomb
302
John M. Knaus
Diesel B-B 45-ton
Whitcomb
423
Richard Marshall
Diesel B-B 45-ton
Whitcomb
7750
Diesel A-A 25-ton
General Electric
3/1890
5/1889
~1919
5/1912
10/1910
6/1945
11/1944
1/1945
1942
10755
10028
51165
48585
60642
60403
60628
15811
Ewa Plantation Co.
C
Oahu Rwy & Land Co.
C
Waialua Agricultural Co. C
Oahu Rwy & Land Co.
C
Oahu Rwy & Land Co.
C
U.S. Navy
U
U.S. Navy
U
U.S. Navy
O
U.S. Army
O
Hawaii Plantation Village, Waipahu:
(36” gauge)
4
Puuloa
Steam 0-6-2T
Baldwin
1901
19741
U
Dillingham Quarry:
Puako [Derelict]
Honolulu Plantation Co.,
then Oahu Sugar Co
1902
2542
Puako Plantation
U
Kaua’i:
Grove Farm Homestead Museum, Puhi:
(30” gauge)
Paulo
Steam 2-4-2T
Hohenzollern
3
Kaipu
Steam 0-6-2T
Baldwin
5
Wahiawa
Steam 0-6-2T
Baldwin
6
Wainiha
Steam 0-6-2T
Baldwin
1887
7/1925
4/1921
1915
426
58557
54719
Grove Farm
Grove Farm
Grove Farm
Grove Farm
O
U
O
O
Kauai Plantation Railway, Kilohana:
(36” gauge)
1
Halawa
Steam 0-6-0T
Baldwin
1899
16438
Honolulu Plantation Co.
1
Steam 0-4-0T
Builder
(36” gauge)
Porter
Notes
21
sold to the White Pass & Yukon. Six
flatcars were purchased from the
WP&Y by the KPR and bodies were
built on four of them.
Will steam power eventually power
KPR trains? In 2005, the railway in the
Philippines found two Baldwin-built
former Hawaiian 0-6-2T locomotives
(later converted to 0-6-0T’s) originally
operated by the Honolulu Plantation Co.
Hawaiian-Philippine No. 8 was built in
1899 and No. 9 in 1916. They were
purchased and shipped to California for
restoration. Pepe reported that
rebuilding the locomotives has been
slower than expected when problems
were encountered.
Kauai Plantation Railway, Kilohana
Plantation, 3-2087 Kaumuali’i
Highway, P. O. Box 3121, Lihue, HI
96766,
(808)
245-7245,
www.kauaiplantationrailway.com.
Maui and the Big Island
The remaining four rail sites on
Hawai’i await my next trip. Briefly,
they are:
•Lahaina, Kaanapali & Pacific RR,
“The Sugar Cane Train,” Lahaina, West
Maui – 36-inch gauge tourist railway
built in 1969-1970.
•Lahaina Restoration Foundation,
Lahaina – two 30.75-inch gauge
Baldwin 0-4-2T+T locomotives from
the local Pioneer Mill were returned in
2011.
•Alexander & Baldwin Sugar
Museum, Puunene, Maui – although it
is not currently on display, the museum
owns the Claus Spreckles, the oldest
locomotive on Hawaii, and several
freight cars from the 36-inch gauge
Kahului RR (1879-1966).
•Laupahoehoe Train Museum,
Laupahoehoe, Big Island – a puzzler (it
doesn’t answer its emails) that says it’s
dual gauge (standard and what else?),
centered around a wye.
DAILEY FOUNDATION
FUNDS PRESERVATION
It isn’t often that a new funding
source for railway preservation appears,
which makes the arrival of the Thomas
E. Dailey Foundation of such interest.
Tom Dailey is a 29-year veteran
executive in the credit card and
payment processing industries. He is
currently CEO of 2Checkout.com, a
global payments processor. He created
the Foundation as a way to share his
blessings and to support to causes
which are close to his heart.
The foundation plans to distribute up
to $100,000 annually in total grants.
Individual grants of up to $15,000 will
be considered and awards are made
approximately every three months.
Only organizations located within the
United States are eligible.
22
So far in 2013 the following grants
totaling $67,680 have been approved.
Erie Lackawanna Dining Car
Preservation Society, $5000
The Society is currently restoring
three historic dining cars to operate on
county-owned railroad between
Scranton and Delaware Water Gap.
Grant will be used towards completion
of restoration including updating
kitchen equipment to meet health codes
and interior refurbishment to return car
to original appearance.
Center for Railroad Photography and
Art, $10,000
To present an exhibition at the
Chicago History Museum called “Faces
of Chicago’s Railroad Community:
Photographs by Jack Delano”. Will
comprise 60 photographs from 1942-43
and narratives about each of 48
individual workers. Will also publish a
224-page catalog with additional
photographs, expanded narratives and
essays by leading scholars. Show will
run April 4, 2014 to August 10, 2015.
Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum,
$2,500
To build a fire-resistant car barn to
store trolley car no. 10, with room for
restoration work on a second trolley
body, foundation and track work.
Travel Town Museum Foundation,
$4,000
Little Nugget is a 1937 dormitorylounge that served on the Union Pacific
Streamliner “City of Los Angeles” in
the 1930’s-1950’s. The most
challenging aspect of the interior
restoration is the replacement of
missing/damaged light sconces. The
estimated cost is $12,000 to replace
three of the sconces and repair several
others, and for the electrical work.
Lake States Railway Historical
Association, $1,500
The CRI&P Drawing Project goal is
to sort, describe, catalog, repair and
properly store as many as 15,000
technical drawings of Chicago, Rock
Island and Pacific Railroad equipment.
The grant will partially fund a year-long
effort to catalog these drawings.
Volunteers
will
contribute
approximately 2000 hours to unroll,
describe and store these drawings.
West Chester Railroad,$1,500
The project will assist in
rehabilitation of a deteriorated crossing
over a public roadway, allowing safe
and efficient operation of trains.
Minnesota Streetcar Museum, $1,000
The project will assist in building an
addition to the existing George K.
Isaacs streetcar barn and shop to house
restored Winona, Minnesota streetcar
#10, built in 1913.
Chicago & North Western Historical
Society, $2,000
The grant will partially fund a project
to scan a collection of railroad maps.
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum,
$1,500
The grant will assist in building the
Artifact Preservation Building, which
will be an 8,640 square foot structure
for long term storage of streetcars and
spare parts
Fort Wayne Railroad Historical
Society, $2,000
The FWRHS is commissioning a
cinematic documentary and public
awareness campaign showcasing the
restoration, ongoing maintenance and
operation of its Nickel Plate 2-8-4 #765
(Lima 1944).
Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum,
$2,500
The project will partially enable the
purchase of 252 crossties to replace
worn crossties from the 1950’s on the
museum’s operating track.
Mid-Continent Railway Historical
Society, $1,500
Partial funding for restoration of the
museum’s Delaware Lackawanna and
Western coaches, which have been in
continual service since 1914.
Colfax Railroad Museum, $2,880
The grant will fund purchase of
display cases for the museum’s large
collection of railroad dining car china.
Friends of the 261, $4,000
The grant will partially fund F.R.A.
type 2 glazing on the Milwaukee Road
Skytop lounge car “Cedar Rapids”.
Illinois Railway Museum, $5,000
The grant will partially fund
restoration of a pair of 1964 vintage
Chicago elevated cars to their as-built
appearance.
Adirondack Railway Preservation
Society, $1,500
The grant will partially fund
restoration of passenger cars from the
railroad’s historic fleet.
Society for Preservation of Onley
Train Station, Onancock, VA, $1,000
SPOTS is renovating a 127-year old
freight station on Virginia’s Eastern
Shore and filling the station with model
trains for children to play with.
Army Transportation Museum
Foundation, $2,500
The grant will be used for repair and
painting of a Berlin Duty Train car,
which represents a significant piece of
Cold War history that cannot be
replicated as most of the other cars no
longer exist or are no longer available
to museums. The train operated from
1945 to 1990 and transported tens of
thousands of soldiers and their
dependents from West Germany to
Berlin and vice-versa.
Nevada Northern Railway Museum,
$13,800
This grant will fully fund the
installation of a pair of restored, very
rare Western Railroad Supply Model 5
Autoflag Wig-Wag signals from the
1930’s. The signals were original to the
railroad and will be restored to
operation along original track to protect
a grade crossing in the museum’s rail
yard.
Beverly, MA Historical Society and
Museum, $1,000
The grant will partially fund the
purchase of custom vitrines to protect
locomotive models in the Walker
Transportation Collection, which are
among the museum’s most important
objects.
Northwestern Pacific Railroad
Historical Society, $1,000
The grant will partially fund a project
to scan, print and preserve
approximately 4,000 photographic
negatives and slides in the collection of
the NWPRRHS.
HERITAGE RAILNEWS
Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum
The museum, which formerly ran
excursions over the Housatonic
Railroad, was unable to renew its lease.
The search for an alternate venue has
been successful. Its trains will run from
Adams to North Adams, MA on a
former Boston & Maine line currently
owned by Pan Am Southern. It has been
announced that Massachusetts DOT
will purchase the line and lease it to the
museum, with Pan Am retaining freight
rights.
Despite being evicted by the
Housatonic, the museum has leased the
Stockbridge depot, which is owned by
the High Meadow Foundation. The
depot will house displays and be used
for special events.
Catskill Mountain Railroad
The New York and Atlantic Railway
has donated a former Long Island Rail
Road commuter coach to the Catskill
Mountain.
Connecticut Eastern Railroad
Museum Willimantic, CT
The museum has acquired the
control house from the 107-year old
Niantic River drawbridge. The bridge, a
crucial link in the Northeast Corridor,
was recently replaced by Amtrak.
Equimault & Nanaimo,
Victoria, BC
Service has been suspended for some
time on the E&N line from Victoria to
Nanaimo because of deteriorated track
and rolling stock. The Island Corridor
Foundation has received government
funding commitments of $15 million to
replace a quarter of the ties and begin
dealing with a backlog of bridge
repairs. Once matched with $5 million
raised locally, the total of $20 million
will be sufficient to return the line to
service, although additional deferred
maintenance remains to be addressed.
Georgia State Railroad Museum
Savannah, GA
The Central of Georgia Railway
Historical Society has donated a pair of
C of G passenger cars, baggage-mail
#493 (Bethlehem Steel 1937) and
combine #374 (ACF 1917).
New York Museum of
Transportation, Rush, NY
On an abandoned New York Central
line in Rochester, a swing bridge
remained in place over the Genesee
River. The Coast Guard designated it a
navigation hazard and ordered current
owner CSX to remove it. After efforts
to repurpose the bridge for other uses
failed, CSX offered to donate
components from the bridge’s control
cabin. NYMT requested and received
the steam engine that originally
powered the rotation of the bridge,
conflict began when the Rail Runner
commuter service reached Santa Fe and
began sharing the yard and depot with
the Santa Fe Southern. When the tourist
line’s lease expired, the city insisted on
a large rent increase and restrictions on
use of the yard. SFS rejected the lease
terms as unaffordable. Its modest
freight traffic has mostly dried up and
the Rail Runner competes for customers
who want to take a train ride. As a
result, SFS has suspended operations
and it’s unclear if it will restart this
year.
The Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society has opened its Interpretive
Center, based on the design of a Southern Pacific depot. Wayne Jones photo.
noted on a layout of the control cabin as
a 50HP double cylinder reversible link
motion engine, built by the Lidgerwood
Mfg Co., the control lever assembly;
the cast iron mount for the rotational
dial indicator (dial missing); and the
original cast iron builder plate.
CSX delivered them to the museum
on December 26. CSX included a grant
to pay for their exhibition.
Myrick collection donated
Noted rail historian David F. Myrick,
author of numerous histories of western
railroads, passed away in 2011. His
extensive collection of research notes,
writings and photographs has now been
distributed to museums in several states.
The Nevada State Railroad Museum
received 146 books, 77 maps, 1740
photos, numerous periodicals and
approximately ten cubic feet of archive
material. Ten cartons of Arizona
material have gone to the Arizona State
Railroad Museum in Williams.
California State Railroad Museum and
Colorado Railroad Museum are also
recipients of material relating to those
states.
Northwest Railway Museum
Snoqualmie, WA
The museum’s railroad has a number
of grade crossings, so maintenance and
periodic replacement is a major
expense. The latest, a double track
crossing in North Bend, has been
completed at a cost of $50,000. It would
have been considerably more, but the
museum was able to obtain used
concrete panels from a 1997 crossing in
Redmond, WA. They estimate that this
saved $35,000. A $20,000 grant from
the Washington Utilities and
Mudball Express--Year 2: Girl
Scouts toss mudballs filled with
wildflower seeds along the Niles
Canyon Railway. NC Ry. photo.
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Transportation Commission further
defrayed the cost.
San Diego Electric Railway
Association, San Diego, CA
In the last issue we erroneously
stated that the association owns PCC
cars. In fact they are owned and
restored by The San Diego Vintage
Trolley, Inc., a wholly-owned nonprofit subsidiary of the Metropolitan
Transit System. The Association
partners with SDVTI by supplying
volunteers who assist in the restoration
of the six PCC cars. Thanks to
Association President Dave Slater for
the correction.
Santa Fe Southern
Santa Fe, NM
Santa Fe Southern may be out of
business. After a long battle with the
City of Santa Fe, the railroad has been
unable to renegotiate its lease at the
city-owned railyard and depot. The
San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum
San Luis Obispo, CA
The new San Luis Obispo Railroad
Museum has scheduled a grand opening
for October 12, 2013. The museum is
located in the circa 1894 Southern
Pacific freight house, which is several
hundred yards from the Amtrak station.
Steamtown, Scranton, PA
Photos and information about almost
7800 of Steamtown’s small artifacts and
documents can now be accessed online.
Go
to
www.nps.gov/stea/
historyculture/collections.htm
Texas State Railroad
Palestine, TX
Texas State’s plan to haul freight for
the first time in many years has taken a
major step forward with the
announcement that Baze Chemical will
build an ethoxylation plant on the site
of an old meat packing plant outside
Palestine. Ethoxylation is an industrial
process that produces ethylene oxide,
which is used by the oil and gas
industries.
Timber Heritage Association
Eureka, CA
Restoration of the 1907 car shed
building at Samoa Shops is largely
The Proctor (MN) Area Historical Society has moved and refurbished the 1927 Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Car Shop
Superintendent’s Office from the Proctor yard. It sits next to DM&IR 2-8-8-4 #225 and caboose #C-200.
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complete. Work began in 2011,
including a new roof. There is currently
a single track into the building, on
which the society has moved its Arcata
& Mad River 44-tonner.
Western New York Railway
Historical Society, Buffalo, NY
Work continues to build the
Society’s Heritage Discovery Center in
buildings that were formerly part of the
Buffalo
Cooler
Corporation.
Improvements are being funded by a
$100,000 grant from the Margaret L.
Wendt Foundation. Work completed to
date includes two new bathrooms,
electrical repairs, additional security
cameras, renovation of an area for a gift
shop, new doors and drywall, new
phone system, a library room with
shelving and installation of a kitchen.
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Whitewater Valley Railroad
Connersville, IN
The first of two tracks has been
completed into the new shop building,
making it available for partial use. The
inspection pit is done, along with the
lighting, electrical and exterior doors.
Willamette Shore Trolley
Portland, OR
It looks like the Willamette Shore
Trolley will begin operation this May
after a three-year shutdown. It hasn’t
run since the line’s only operating car
was sidelined with mechanical
problems. One of the Gomaco-built
replica Council Crest cars has been
leased by the Oregon Electric Railway
Historical Society, which operates the
line. When service starts, it won’t go
the entire route to Portland’s south
waterfront, since construction of the
new Sellwood Bridge has cut the line in
half. It will go just 1.5 miles from Lake
Oswego to the Riverwood Crossing.
Lake Oswego, Portland, Clackamas
County, Multnomah County, TriMet,
Metro and the Oregon Department of
Transportation bought the rail line for
$1.2 million in 1988. Up until last year
the line was headed toward becoming a
Portland-Lake Oswego light rail route,
but the Lake Oswego City Council
suspended those plans in January 2012
after pushback from residents and loss
of support from city officials.
Wilmington and Western,
Wilmington, DE
The railroad has taken occupancy of
its new Office and Education Building.
How’s this for anachronism--a Civil War replica locomotive on an interurban line? The York steam trial was held at the Fox
Valley Trolley Museum. Joe Hanzinski photo.
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The Western New York Railway
Historical Society has restored Buffalo
Creek HH660 switcher #43 (Alco 1940).
It worked the Buffalo docks until 1966,
and had a second career with RELCO
until 2000. WNYRHS photo.
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First Class Railroad Pins and Patches
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The Railroad Museum of New England has completed a multi-year restoration of Canadian National heavyweight coach
#5114 (National Streel Car 1927). It enters service this year on the Naugatuck Railroad. Howard Pincus photo.
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Irwin Car and Equipment
Atlas Car Products
PO Box 409 Irwin, PA. 15642
Contact Bill Springer
Ph. 724-864-8900
Scenic Railroad and Museum Car Parts
Two of America’s favorite past Times
Atlas Car Products can help make sure that your cars stay on track, operate safely and
maintain their historical integrity with our stocked parts and extensive line of distributed
products.
Couplers and Replacement Parts
Sharon 10 and 10A Couplers
Willison and Willison Reduced Couplers
Knuckles, Locklifts, Levers, Latches, Pins
Coupler Pockets
Stocked and Distributed Parts
Axles
Gear Guards
Brake Components
Gears and Pinions
Bearings
Hoses (Air and Grease)
Bolsters
Rubber Cushion Pads
Couplers
Side Frames
Brake Cylinders
Springs
Traction Motors
Traction Motor Axle Liners
Truck Assemblies
Wheels
Wheel Sets
Atlas Car Products has Truck Assembly Repairs and Rebuild capabilities with a truck
shop and motor repair shop located at the same site.
Services Include:
Truck Assembly Repairs & Rebuilds
Traction Motor Repairs
Wheel Re-profiling
Wheel & Bearing Replacement
Custom Manufacturing
Wheel & Axle Shop
For parts that no longer available, let our engineering staff reverse-engineer them with
our high tech Faro-Arm coordinate equipment.
Atlas Car Products also supplies parts for captive services, maintenance of way, and steel
mills.
Look for Atlas Products at www.irwincar.com
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Hampton and Branchville 4-6-0 #44 (Baldwin 1927) is on display at the South Carolina Railroad Museum near Winnsboro,
SC. At right is a string of four Canadian National Montreal MU cars (Canadian Car and Foundry 1952) used on its tourist
trains.
The South Carolina Railroad Museum owns and operates the old Rockton-Rion Railroad near Winnsboro, SC. The R-R was
known as the Blue Granite Line for its principal commodity, mined from two on-line quarries. Owned by Winnsboro Granite Corp., it
was a non-common carrier, and did not appear in the Official Guide, as noted by Lucius Beebe in Mixed Train Daily. The 12-mile
line became famous for running a pair of low drivered 2-8-2s and a Porter 0-4-0T into the late 1960s. After dieselization, business
declined and the last freight was hauled sometime in the late 1970s.
The Charleston Chapter NRHS acquired a rolling stock collection and formed the South Carolina Railroad Museum in 1973, but
was unable to find a museum site. Meanwhile, the Central South Carolina Chapter NRHS began negotiating to purchase the RocktonRion in 1980. The two chapters spun off the South Carolina Railroad Museum as an independent organization and the railroad was
purchased in 1983. In 1985 the State of South Carolina approached the museum with a proposal to locate a Mack Truck plant on the
right of way a mile from the Norfolk Southern interchange. The state built a new line to bypass the plant site and installed the needed
industrial trackage. NS has rights to switch the plant, which changed owners and now produces fiberglass insulation. In exchange for
the access, the county pays for track and grade crossing signal maintenance.
The museum began running excursions in 1993 and has reopened an additional four miles of the line, thanks to four Transportation
Enhancement grants. Annual ridership averages 10,000-12,000. The museum has about 250 members, of whom 35 volunteer
regularly. Recent initiatives include rehabbing one of two former portable classroom buildings to serve as a gallery for history
displays, and repainting of all the locomotives. The 52-piece collection includes two steam locomotives, 8 diesels, 15 passenger cars,
17 freight cars and six cabooses.
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